Rotary-wing aircraft, such as helicopters, can take off and land vertically, hover, fly forward, backward, and laterally. Thus, helicopters are used in myriad environments and for myriad purposes that fixed-wing aircraft and other types of vertical takeoff and landing aircraft cannot. The environments range from deserts to oceans, from remote rural areas to sprawling urban areas. The purposes include personnel and cargo transportation, military, journalism, search and rescue, firefighting medical transport, tourism, and aerial observation, just to name a few.
Unfortunately, helicopters also exhibit certain drawbacks. In particular, the incidence of unintended (“emergency”) landings for helicopters is undesirably high. There are many causes associated with these emergency landings. The leading causes, however, include operator error, equipment malfunctions, and hazardous weather. Regardless of its cause, in an emergency landing situation the pilot must decide where and how to land the aircraft. Often the pilot has to choose between landing immediately, without regard to the nature of the landing zone, and attempting to reach a more desirable landing zone. The distinction between these choices may not be clear, and the information the pilot may need to fully assess the situation may not be available. Moreover, the workload pressures placed on the pilot while executing an emergency landing may actually exacerbate the situation.
Hence, there is a need for a system that provides more clear and distinct choices and/or sufficient information to a pilot when an emergency landing maneuver needs to be conducted and/or reduces the workload pressures on the pilot when executing an emergency landing maneuver. The present invention addresses at least these needs.